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Salty Fly 2011 tournament Photos by Josh Maitland
2.28.2011
Since I was running the tournament I really did not have time to take many photos. I asked my friend and neighbor Josh if he could do me a favor. I asked him to come help with the tournament and shoot some photos. He was more happy to be there at 6am and then again at 3pm. I owe you one Josh!
Josh shoots mainly Canon gear but I won’t hold that against him. 
I think he did a great job of capturing the emotions and feel of the tournament. Thanks again buddy!
Adios Winter – Looks like an early spring in Carolina
After several days of low pressure and high winds, we finally got a real taste of spring yesterday. Air temps in the 70′s, light winds, and sunny skies – oh yeah! Once the morning fog lifted, the fish decided to put on a show. We saw something yesterday that I haven’t seen in our marshes since November – a group of 30 big reds tailing happily in the mud! They were completely unaware of our presence. I wanted to grab my camera, but opted for a fly rod instead. Once cast and the water exploded – a hammer of a fish broke away and inhaled the fly! After a long, cold winter it looks like things are starting to get back to normal in the Carolina marshes. Can’t wait for summer and for our seasonal visitors to begin arriving in the creeks, bays, and ocean.
Salty Fly 2011 tournament Results
2.27.2011
The First annual Salty Fly tournament has passed. Salty Fly is the largest Fly Only tournament in Florida with 45(43 fished it) teams (we even capped it off it would have been more)
The event could not have turned out better. From my point of view, it went much more smoothly than I could have hoped.
Everyone at the tournament was enthusiastic and was having a great time at the weight in. We had 100 people at the weight in as friends and family joined the fun.
We had some great comments and feedback:
“Thanks for putting on a much needed event.”
“Best tournament I’ve ever been in bar none..”
“..I don’t usually fish tournament but this one was a must do..”
We had guys come from all over Florida to fish the Salty Fly. The prize however, for the longest travel was Team Cheeky which came from Boston MA and Colorado.
Thanks to all our sponsors, everyone that came out to fish, helped with tournament, take photos, raffles, and for the weight in.
I will be working on the 2012 Salty Fly soon. If you are interested in sponsoring next year’s tournament please contact me sam@saltyshores.com
Lots more photos to come but for now here are a couple images and the results.
6am Captain’s meeting, most teams were there early.
A new Salty Fly tradition, the Flavor Flav Nautilus Trophie/medallion look.
Congrats to top 3 team: To read more details please visit Florida Fly Fishing Magazine
http://www.floridaflyfishingmagazine.com/salty-fly-2011.html
First place winners, with 73” caught from their canoe, were the justifiably pleased Chris Ravelo and Nicholas Feldts, team Native Revolution, from New Port Richey and Tampa.
Fred McClendon with his son-in-law, Marcus Dean as team Hurrah were participating in only their second tournament out of their Carolina Skiff. Their 72” of catch caught them a very impressive second in the tournament.
Rich and Jeff of team RamRod were 3rd place with a two redfish and single trout combined length of 70”.
Learning saltwater fly fishing from the ground up with Scott Swartz of Florida Fly Fishing School
2.24.2011
Salty shores is all about all types of fishing and the life style of it all. Lately, since I’m running this fly tournament fly fishing has been on the brain.
I figured it would be a good time to do small write up about learning how to fly fish. Specifically Salt water fly fishing.
While doing the Matlacha video I met Scott Swartz. He runs an small and intimate school called Florida Fly Fishing School down in Pine Island Florida. Being somewhat of a beginner/intermediate fly fisherman myself, I asked if I could come and check it out when he has his next one.
Last month I got to go check it out for myself and shot a little video interview while I was there. The classes were held in Matlacha Florida, a small fishing village surrounded by some excellent flats fishing waters pretty much year round.
The small classroom was filled with all kinds of fly gear. From old antique to the latest and greatest gear. Most of the people there varied from all walks of life. You had vacationers from up north. You had freshwater fly fisherman wanting to do more saltwater fly fishing. Spin fisherman that has seen on the fly fishing films as well as guides that wanted to start guiding fly trips.
The class is aimed at the beginning to intermediate fly fisherman and I must say it was very thorough. Scott goes over everything from rod selection, tippet explanation, common knots, and of course the casting concepts. Let’s put it this way, I can’t thing of anything that he did not go over.
The class is kept small and intimate, which is cool as you can get lots of one on one instruction. A very relax feel with lots of slides and visual aids.
The 2nd day was spent outdoor actually casting the fly rod. The rods were provided and all the students learned to cast from the ground up. Those that were already casting, like me, was helped getting flaws out of our casting strokes. This allows me to be more accurate and get the ability to analyze my mistakes.
If you want a running start to saltwater fly fishing it’s definitely worth a look into.
Video note: This video was shot on the Sony Nex and the Sony ECMSST1 microphone.
The Groundhog’s shadow is gone… bye bye Old fart Winter + Shimano Terez Waxwing test!!!
As I write this, I am finishing the last few flies and packing up for my trip over to Tampa tomorrow morning to fish the Salty Fly Tournament. I’m torn between staying in town during my busman’s holiday and tugging on giant poons, big bonefish, and slob permit, but the largest fly fishing tournament and best comraderie awaits over on the west coast. So with that said, I will leave you all with dreams for the weekend…
It probably isn’t any secret anymore, but look out on my facebook account for “Tis the season 2011″. Life’s all about those giant sardines.
What else could create giant holes in the ocean so gracefully...
#1 of 2011, guesstimate 140lbs
one of the "smaller ones" that sucked down a fly
Airborne with DOA Baitbuster in lips
Versatility is a must when fishing in my home waters in the Everglades. We can be poling down a shoreline looking for laid up tarpon in the morning, then running the Minnkota up one the many creeks that dot the gulf coast afterwards skipping soft plastics under branches. My new Maverick Mirage 18 HPX-V continues to impress me with this feat every day and is still without a doubt still the most versatile skiff in it’s class.
During a recent charter, we spent the morning tossing DOA Baitbusters at giant tarpon and after tugging on a few, we changed the pace of things a little and took the new Shimano Terez rods out for some light tackle backcountry fishing. We disected the roots of every mangrove tree, tossing shrimp tipped jigs and DOA CALs into the danger zone and pulling on some redfish and snook. The Shimano Terez Waxwing rod handles this very well an casts these light weight lures with good distance and accuracy. On this trip, we fished the medium action Terez Waxwing. The rod has a softer tip that allows for increased sensitivity and ease of casting lighter lures but a stout butt section for pulling big fish away from snags. The new Fuji K guides were remarkable. You can definitely tell the difference in how the power pro flows with less resistance out of the new tangle free guides on these Terez rods. I will definitely be replacing a few more of my backcountry rods with these new Terez Waxwing spinning rods.
a morning of tarpon tug-of-war and afternoon of over 40 redfish
This is only the beginning… stay tuned!!!
Tarpon Feeding Clip from Cavin Brothers
2.24.2011
Got this from Cavin Brothers of Color Bind Media. A cool clip of Tarpon feeding down in Maimi, Fl.
Salty Fly Update, Upcoming Events, Stickers Sent out, and fitting in some fishing
2.23.2011
I got out with Alonso and Richard the other day for a couple hours to mess around with the Bay Black drum. Though we hooked a few we only landed one. Not that these things are tough to land. There are so many of them that the lines some times gets broken off , you hook the fish in bad place or even accidentally snag one. Lots of people out there so we stayed out there only until 11am and called it a good morning session.
I haven’t done any HDR edit in a while so here was a good chance.
If you want to learn more about HDR go here:
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-tutorial/
As you may know we’re putting together the Salty Fly, fly fishing tournament here in the Tampa area. This is the first one and it is already the largest Fly only tournament in Florida that I know of.
It is coming up this Saturday Feb 26th so as you might guess I’ve been pretty busy getting everything done. If are in the tournament please go read the latest update.
http://saltyshores.com/wordpress/fly-fishing/2011-fly-fishing-tournaments/salty-fly-details/
Saltyshores Stickers that has been ordered the last couple weeks have been sent out.
- Tyler G.
- James R.
- Jason S.
- Shafter J.
Some events and tournament around the corner:
Tampa Outdoor Expo 2011: The best outdoor/boating/fishing show in West Central Florida. If you have to go to one fishing/boat show this year in Tampa this is it.
Friday, March 4th 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. FREE FRIDAY!
Saturday, March 5th 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Sunday, March 6th 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
It’s the Outdoor’s Expo 20th Anniversary!
Fishing, Boating, Archery, Hunting, Kayaking, and More
Over 150 Vendors
Friday is FREE Admission
Saturday and Sunday: Admission is $8.00 for age 13 and up
Age 12 and under are FREE
For more information please visit www.TAMPAOUTDOORSEXPO.COM
The Drake Fly fishing film tour is coming to Tampa on April 7th 2011
Flint Creek is hosting a party before hand with lots of raffle prizes(more on this when they send me the list) and selling tickets.
For Cities near you:
http://www.flyfishingfilmtour.com/Schedule/fly-fishing-film-tour-US-schedule.asp
Tournaments coming up.
Don’s Bait and Tackle tournament March 12th 2011 (Miami Area)
Florida Flatsfishing Association, LLC
www.myflfa.com
The 2011 Back Country Schedule
http://www.myflfa.com/events.htm
FLFA/Back Country Artificial
Only #1 – March 4 / 5
FLFA/Back Country DST Tourney
March 25 / 26
FLFA/Back Country Artificial
Only #2 – April 15 / 16
Hammerhead shark rams into Skiff and snaps the push pole.
2.23.2011
I got this sent to me by Richard this morning. It is video footage of a hammerhead shark in the crystal clear flats of the Bahamas.
In the video you see the shark chasing after a hooked bone fish. To try to escape, the fish runs under the skiff for safety. The hot hammerhead rams into the boat and push pole snapping it in half. Excellent footage!
I believe that is a LOOP push pole sold by my friend Joe at Carbon Marine. I will have to ask him if this is covered under warranty or not.
Mosquito Lagoon, Indian River & Banana River
The weather this past weekend was beautiful…so beautiful that I wanted to make the day perfect by fishing the Mosquito Lagoon with Eddie Oliveras. Schools of Redfish in the hundreds were seen from as far as the eye can see, along with schools of Gator Trout laid up in large sandy areas. The best part is that most of the fish that we presented flies to ate! After getting some fish on fly we got into a mess of rat reds that loved the D.O.A Holographic shrimp, these fish kept circling the boat while we were Wanged and enjoying a few ice cold beers. The highlight of the day had to be when I sight fished a nice Gator Trout on fly….the big breeder attacked my redfish slider twice before getting stuck. Sight fishing Sea Trout on the flats with a flyrod is equivalent to fly fishing for bonefish or permit in the keys, some say it’s even harder just because how wary they are, but when the stars align you will have a good chance of getting one.
The next day I had a 3 boat half day charter set up by Capt. Richard Bradley of Lagooner fishing guides. Richard asked me and Capt. Jamie Glasner to be his multiple boats for a corporate trip. Wind was blowing way more than the forecast called for which made stalking schools of the bigger reds difficult so we opted to stake out next to each other and fish a hole that that held schools of trout and reds. All of our anglers caught 15+ redfish and even more trout each. The fish were on the small side but constant action and double hookups on all boats made for fun times! Lures of choice aboard my boat were D.O.A. Cals in all colors.
Also here are some shots from last week in the 1,000 islands of the Banana River with Dominic Agostini.
-Capt. Willy Le
321-303-7805
www.nativeflycharters.com
2011 Hellsbay Gladeskiff, inteview with Chris Peterson
2.21.2011
As you have read on hear last week Hellsbay revamped their popular gladeskiff for 2011.
So when I was at the boatshow I had a chance to talk to Chris Peterson about the changes. He tells me with two, 200lb anglers the boat still drafts under 4″, that’s crazy skinny.
Here’s the video interview shot with the Sony NEX-5. Chris was also impressed with the Sony. lol
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